News:

Welcome to V.L.H

Main Menu
Welcome to verylittlehelps. Please login or sign up.

28-03-24, 06:52PM

Login with username, password and session length
Members
Stats
  • Total Posts: 38,117
  • Total Topics: 630
  • Online today: 322
  • Online ever: 1,436
  • (24-01-24, 01:01AM)
Users Online
Users: 3
Guests: 286
Total: 289

GROSS MISCONDUCT reduced item

Started by Bryan, 28-06-18, 03:56PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Bryan

Hi.  I am new to the forum and would like to ask for help in the following matter.

I was accused of gross misconduct in the store for BUYING a reduced item but not taking it from the shop floor, I took it from the warehouse and even though they showed me a receipt for that they still state that this is an act of THEFT.  It has become a culture in my store that managers and employees either take products from the back or hide it to prevent customers from buying bargains.

My questions are: Can that really be treated as a theft (and therefore a gross misconduct) if I actually pay for the item??? Do employees actually get trained in that particular area in your stores (not just how to use PDA and printer and how to put stickers with prices but I mean a proper Bronze or Silver training card INCLUDING SAFETY  matters like for instance, can I take stock from the back?? or what percentage levels should I apply while doing reductions? how should I behave when I see a manager hiding something at the back ???  should I really react as if I see an actual theft on the shop floor and so on and on) as I only have had basic Health & Safety, Fire and Legal Age training in the past.

Thank You in advance

Me2015

Clearly not theft if you have proof of purchase, even more so if they showed it to you!

Every store is the same, always has and will be, just like the customers, when 7pm comes and there are fresh food final reductions being carried out, then staff will look and take before the stock goes onto the floor.  Nothing wrong with that, as long as the reduction is corporate and not made up; which can be classed as gross misconduct, then no issues, especially if you say the other managers and staff do it often and is clear to see each time at 7pm!

If anything a let's talk about waiting to take from RTC area, anything more, they are being over zealous and would not have a keg to stand on in an appeal!

madness

The issue is that you could have kept the product back and got it reduced for your own use but it never had a chance to sell at a regular price.

JL

Our evening shift hide reduced items about the store collecting them at shift end. The BWS bond is a favourite hiding place.

DairyLee

The maximum percentage reduction is 70% for most products now so if it has been reduced more than this whoever completed the reduction could be in trouble too.
 

lucgeo

If you have a receipt, it can't be classed as theft.....so if the letter for your investigation stated theft, then their case falls down at the first hurdle and should be dismissed.

If the item was reduced in excess of the correct  % either by yourself or by a colleague on your behalf with your knowledge, then that is gross misconduct. You should have been trained on the correct procedure regarding reduction times and % during the day, on your first day.

If the item was embargoed stock, for future reduction promo, and taken off a cage in the warehouse, then that is gross misconduct.

If you haven't been specifically told, or signed a form stating that you understand reduced stock should only be taken from the shopfloor, then you are just following the accepted norm of other colleagues and managers, and therefore cannot be singled out for disciplinary action.

Please, please take a rep in with you for any meeting.

@Me2015

If they've drunk the whole keg, don't think they could stand on all fours on it  :D :D
Live for today. Learn from yesterday.

Bryan

thank You for Your help so far. The problem that I described doesn't regard the actual price of the reduced item, though.It was reduced according to the regulations.it is more the fact that the product was taken form the back without the chance for the customer to buy it first. I am absolutely confused with that whole situation as I was told that while on my break ...I am a customer too !!!! The letter I received does not state it is actually THEFT what I did. However I was told by my union reps that they will classify it like that cos I did not give the chance to customers to buy that. (They also state by the way that if you are supposed to work 7,5 hour shift and you go home after 7 hours and 15 minutes home then ....this is a theft from the company as well,I steal 15 minutes from the hourly paid so 8 pounds divided by four). I need to ask the question one again, though.Is a job on reductions covered by official training??????? like on checkouts for example.In my opinion it is a very risky job that involves dealing with money/prices and you can be sacked for a mistake that you weren't told about during training.
PS.many of my colleagues state that '''this is exactly  why we never touch any reductions''.it is grey area and procedures are quite unclear

Me2015

So, I'm your investigatory, what is the actual complaint, as your now talking about something completely different?!

If you are leaving before you should, then you should get punished, however, if you have never been spoken to about it before, and this is your first time, then nobody in their right mind would go down the disc route, as an appeal would win.

Yes there is training for reductions teams, just like everything else, but what are you wanting to discuss, reductions or leaving early?!

Walker

In terms of reductions tell them that having reviewed the policies on ourtesco you have been unable to find any policy that requires you to place reduced goods on sale before purchasing them and ask to see the relevant policy or training materials. If they produce training materials ask for the relevant training card.

Bryan

To Me2015..thanks for Your reply and sorry for getting off the track a little bit. It is about the company and how the company defines THEFT. so I never stole anything and I never went home before the end of my shift. It is just the fact that the union reps are telling me that even if I paid for the reduced item taken from the back then I STOLE the opportunity for an average customer to buy that before me. and union rep gave me another example of STEALING which is irrelevant to me that regards clocking in and not clocking out....thats a theft as well according to them.Anyway I am gonna ask for relevant training cards that reflect that I have been trained in that subtle area

madness

If everyone "saved" things through the back eventually someone would forget about it or change their mind. Then the comapny loose money and what do you care you "just forgot"

What should happen is reductions are completed. Put on the reduction shelf. You go on your break by getting your money from the canteen, office , locker, wherever and go the the section to buy it

to be honest any decent manager catching you "saving things" would give you a shot across the bow chat about it explaining why keeing back can lead to issues.

Aero

madness is spot on.

For me, the dilemma here is this:

You should only be able to purchase things when you are not working, e.g. on a break or before/after your shift.

If you purchase items during your shift, you are (technically) stealing time from the Company. [Gross Misconduct]

If you are on a break or before/after your shift, you should not be handling stock in the Warehouse. This is (technically) theft. [Gross Misconduct]

No Colleague should ever 'hide' products to purchase later. This would be misappropriation of stock. [Gross Misconduct]

Therefore the only feasible possibility would be to put a product on sale (if authorised to do so), then purchase it on a break/after yous shift.

If there is a culture of Colleagues hiding stock for a later purchase, then proper training should be rolled out across the store.

Hope this helps clear things up.

trolleyboy96

If your on the security hub roll out, it clearly states all reductions should be made available to all customers and not held back, there's a paragraph about it, the hub trigger is staff discount and reductions, so they back track to see the history of the product via cctv, if you reduced it then potentially it could be serious. Pretty sure it's covered in the staff shopping policy.

sammy

We had a store manager till the start of this year that let staff help themselves to the reductions our store it very bad for the fighting a few staff have bent hurt in the pass. So she would rather staff would take it as long as some things went out. People used to put it by and buy it and there end of the shift. Apart from on a Sunday. Anyhow we had a new store manager come in a he didn't even say don't buy anything. After a month of him being there 4 people lost there job. For buying reducations. They went as far back as tracing there clubcard work out 1 person had taking £500 worth of reducations in 6 months. (At full price it would of cost almost £500 pounds) since no one will buy anything and we all be made to sign a letter saying we wont buy anything greater than 50% in reducation. And they can track our clubcard.and all reducation must be taken out onto shop floor. I didn't buy anything anyhow. A few people are still buying things without clubcards. This was all before the 1p shop come along but I know a lot of people won't even buy from that. Because of what happen. A few weeks ago store manager was on late there was loads of 1p things left he was saying I can't be left with all this waste was begging people to buy stuff. No one was interested he had to go a get a big trolley and buy it all himself

Bryan

Aero thanks for reply. Every point you mentioned seems reasonable to me.The only problem is that training...as employees/customers do not really know what to do.If an employee is ON HIS BREAK and is waiting just outside the warehouse door AS A CUSTOMER for somebody from the personnel to give him reductions from the back WITHOUT THE CHANCE FOR OTHER CUSTOMERS to grab that very bargain first then who is to blame ??? And what for ? Theft ??

Critchly

A similar incident happened at our store.
Staff were hiding reduced goods, waiting for the final reduction to 1p. And then giving it to whoever was doing reductions.

I also ocationaly do reductions, and everyone who was involved plus the staff that do reducing was warned that:
"any stock in the store must first be put out on the shop floor, so customers have a chance to buy it. No stock can be taken by staff straight out of the warehouse to the tills and bought. Plus staff weren't allowed to buy anything unless on their break,  which if their on their break,  they shouldn't be in the back of the shop when not working".

That is the policy in place in our store.  The no take from warehouse and buy has been a policy in my store for a few years now. Since the pieface game at Christmas.

sfsorrow

This is a strange one. Saving stuff for people who work in the store with no actual loss to the company is arguably a customer service issue and probably shouldn't happen, but management should be communicating that, not throwing gross misconduct around. It's clearly not theft.

Had it been taken off the shelf earlier in the day with the express intention of a staff member buying it at a lower price than it was when it was taken off the shelf, then it's theft. But even then, if it's something that goes on regularly in the store and the people doing it haven't really thought through the implications, then management should be tackling that culture rather than going after one bloke.

Morris999

Bryan I'm guessing you were either on a break or had finished your shift, you entered the warehouse and selected goods.
Now let's say at this point you were stopped for a random staff search, how do you think it would look?
You were not working, you were in a staff only area and you have goods on you that are Tesco's not yours!
So yes I would investigate it further!
Now obviously I've no idea what the item/s were, could be a tin of beans or an iPad for all I know.
It could be like you said, you were buying reduced items or you could be taking them without paying!
I'd still need to investigate it!
Now we all know the staff search policy or should do by now, and part of that is that you will not have goods on you that are not paid for in staff areas!
Now isn't going into the warehouse to select goods while on a break or after your shift not that!
Then there's the who's reduced the item/s, If it was you, then it opens a whole other can of worms!
Did you deliberately keep it to one side for yourself, did you know it was going to go cheap after a certain time(normally PI/merchandise) etc!
It is all covered in policies, most likely either staff shopping or one of the many security ones!
Your only saving grace is that you say it's common practice in your store, however finding people that will back you up on that is another matter entirely!


Walker

 I've looked through the policies available on OurTesco and haven't found one that covers this.

Me2015

Quote from: Bryan on 28-06-18, 06:10PM
To Me2015..thanks for Your reply and sorry for getting off the track a little bit. It is about the company and how the company defines THEFT. so I never stole anything and I never went home before the end of my shift. It is just the fact that the union reps are telling me that even if I paid for the reduced item taken from the back then I STOLE the opportunity for an average customer to buy that before me. and union rep gave me another example of STEALING which is irrelevant to me that regards clocking in and not clocking out....thats a theft as well according to them.Anyway I am gonna ask for relevant training cards that reflect that I have been trained in that subtle area

What utter nonsense you are being fed mate! It's a molehill being made into a mountain, total waste of time!

Quick chat, job done!  Who in there right mind would go through all of this for this 'theft' the rep should be telling you that!  Some jumped up TM trying to prove a point? If I heard one of my colleagues trying to do this I'd be stepping in and putting some common sense into the mix!

It's no wonder we managers, get a bad name!!

notsofunny

Quote from: Bryan on 28-06-18, 03:56PM
Hi.  I am new to the forum and would like to ask for help in the following matter.

I was accused of gross misconduct in the store for BUYING a reduced item but not taking it from the shop floor, I took it from the warehouse and even though they showed me a receipt for that they still state that this is an act of THEFT.  It has become a culture in my store that managers and employees either take products from the back or hide it to prevent customers from buying bargains.

My questions are: Can that really be treated as a theft (and therefore a gross misconduct) if I actually pay for the item??? Do employees actually get trained in that particular area in your stores (not just how to use PDA and printer and how to put stickers with prices but I mean a proper Bronze or Silver training card INCLUDING SAFETY  matters like for instance, can I take stock from the back?? or what percentage levels should I apply while doing reductions? how should I behave when I see a manager hiding something at the back ???  should I really react as if I see an actual theft on the shop floor and so on and on) as I only have had basic Health & Safety, Fire and Legal Age training in the past.

Thank You in advance

notsofunny

#21
 Bryan
It has become a culture in my store that managers and employees either take products from the back or hide it to prevent customers from buying bargains.

Seems you understand what you was doing is theft and talking about training is just a way to remove yourself from your moral responsibility , But then do you have any ? or do you understand what they are ? or is it that we have all given up on morals by trying to Justified what you did and what we do by what others do or not do  ??? :(

Call me

Saving reduced items for yourself is a NO NO  purchase on your break yes get your receipt signed and place in your car , not your locker . Shopping before your shift on your break and at the end of your shift not whilst working , they are the rules .

captain

over the years I have worked at Tesco this issue is the one where I have seen the most people sacked, mainly for either putting a reduction label on in date stock, reducing to a "silly price" items for work colleagues or saving items in the back.

whenever I have done any reductions I refuse to purchase any of these items, that way I cannot be accused of any wrongdoing, I also warn all new starters on fresh department about the dangers and possible outcome of abusing this system.

Redshoes

There used to be a staff purchase letter they would put out from time to time. This said that you were not allowed to put things on one side to buy later, reduced or not. If you wanted to buy something you should buy from shop floor in open and transparent way.

Then there are the food connection charities that come in. For my store we have a different charity on six days a wk and the seventh day is open to all charities. If you are taking reduced items before they hit the shop floor you are also preventing the charities from benefitting.

Over the years I have seen staff shops come and go and they tend to go because they have been abused. The current way of doing this is very different to any staff shop we have had before. There are strict rules on times and what is allowed. It also has to be cleared at the end of every day.

SMF spam blocked by CleanTalk